Origins

The Forming Of South Melbourne Hellas

South Melbourne was formed late in 1959 by the amalgamation of Hellenic and Yarra Park. However the new club had no ground, so it linked up with South Melbourne United, which used Middle Park. The driving force behind the amalgamation was Theo Marmaras, the then President of Hellenic. Marmaras went on to become one of South’s longest serving presidents, as well as chairman and president of the Victorian Soccer Federation and a leading official in the Australian Soccer Federation.

Of the three clubs that formed the South Melbourne of today, South Melbourne United was the oldest. Records show that in 1933, a Royal Caledonians – South Melbourne United combination won the Harry Armstong Cup for reserve teams. Yarra Park and Hellenic had unsuccessful seasons in the state league, with Hellenic finishing second last in 1958 and Yarra Park last in 1959. South Melbourne United never got higher than the first division.

The amalgamation of Yarra Park and Hellenic with South Melbourne United put Des and Bill Hamilton (both Federation officials) onto the committee of the new South Melbourne Hellas. Des became deputy chairman to Marmaras and Bill became treasurer. Jim Divolis was secretary and the others on the committee were Con Antoniadis, Vlassis Brokoulias, Jim Dimitriadis, Peter Dimitropoulos, George Lakatsas, Evangelos Lardas and Jack Mitchell. This union yielded not only Middle Park and a number of classy players, but also gave the new club a strong junior section, as South Melbourne United had been fielding juniors since the mid 1950’s and had won the 1957 Under-15 championships.